将被扯断的美国公立大学组织文化纽带——以印第安那大学为例

Frozen Rites and Obliterated Sagas:The Torn-apart Organization Culture Bonds of American Public Universities—— A Case Study of Indiana University Organization Cultures of American Public Universities

在现实大学的组织生活中,写在文本中的"刚性"制度只是提纲挈领,并不能穷尽、规范各种微观行为,"软"制度昭示的组织文化并不弱于"刚性"制度,有时,大学的刚性制度文本大同小异,正是"软"制度决定了学术组织的风气及其未来走向。通过大量访谈,揭示由于政策环境的变化,美国公立大学被迫转型及此过程中案例大学组织文化的"软"制度维度——组织仪式——从繁荣至凋敝的过程。仪式容忍模糊,促进人与人之间的交往与表达,深化成员之间及与组织之间的情感联系,直接影响大学组织生活的感性方面。同时,其在促进智慧碰撞、激发跨学科研究、提升学术创造力方面的作用也不容忽视,潜在而深刻地影响着大学完成学术使命的理性方面。行政管理者因其"议程设置者"角色,在培养、形成、维护仪式的过程中,其作用不可替代。杰出的行政管理者自身也会被符号化,成为各种仪式存在的合法性依据,并以组织英雄的面目流传在组织的传说中。在案例大学被迫转型的过程中,大量仪式遗失,其缔造者、维护者及其借以流传的组织传说亦渐被遗忘,组织成员扼腕叹息。于中国大学,"软"制度——组织仪式向来有之,只是以原生、自发的方式存在,鲜少有研究将其理论化,更遑论以理论指导高教管理实践。中国高等教育当今之政策环境颇似美国20世纪60年代末:虽问题重重但发展向好,在中国大学的组织传说中很少听到"英雄"的传说,甚至连组织传说本身亦常与流言相混淆。大学管理者,无论是自身的人格修养,还是管理意义、设置议程的能力均需继续提高。

In practice,the rules written in black and white serve mostly as guiding lines which could not govern each and every specific decision and action.The operations in those grey zones are instead governed by some covert 'rules' ——usually tacit agreements between organization members by which they act as convention.In studying the anomaly of organization cultures,particularly,when no apparent variation of their overt rule is observed, 'covert' rules can be a crucial hint of the culture.This intensive-interview-based qualitative study captures the passive transitions of American public universities starting from 1970's due to the policy environment shift and,in turn,the vicissitude of the ritual dimension of its organization culture——from thriving to withering.Rites,as one major embodiment of 'covert' rules,tolerated ambiguity,built and enhanced the emotional ties and attachments among members and in between member and the organization.Rites also inspired intellectual communications among faculty and provoked interdisciplinary researches and boosted institutional creativity.The university administrators were indispensable for their agenda-setting role in the initiation,cultivation and maintenance of the rites.The image of those irreverent administers was also symbolized and preserved in organization sagas as ' heroes' to legitimate the existence and continuity of rites.It is a pity that in the case university,abundant rites in late 1960's were now frozen or even lost,and the organization heroes——the rites initiators and maintainers preserved in the sagas——were now forgotten.For higher education research in China,there is rarely any effort for the theorization of rites,despite their long indigenous existence in practice.Also,although the higher education institutional environment in China today is comparable to that of United States in1960's——abundant resources and reformative discourse,there is rarely any publicly acknowledged 'organization heroes' emerging as those in the case study.Even the sagas that could preserve the heroic images are now often confused with rumors.It is recommended that China's university administers improve their abilities including agenda-setting,meaning-management and personal character cultivation.